This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Ann Arbor Mini Maker Faire. Started in 2008 by local entrepreneur and innovator Dale Grover at the Washtenaw County Fairgrounds, the faire was the first Mini Maker Faire in the world, under Make Media's Maker Faire brand. This set in motion mini maker faires to pop up all over the U.S. and world through Make Media. The event moved to Washtenaw Community College in 2013 and then to the Ann Arbor District Library's downtown branch in 2016, where it is being held again this year.

In this 10th anniversary year, the co-organizers rebranded the faire into the Ann Arbor Creativity and Making Expo (AACME) to better reflect our current creative community. A broadened scope now includes more youth makers as well as innovations in handicrafts such as weaving, knitting and quilting.

So mark your calendar for Sunday, May 20 from 12-5pm at the downtown district library for this year's 10th anniversary event!

Interested in participating as an exhibitor? Applications are open through Friday, April 13. Find out more HERE.

A collection documenting the history of social protest movements and marginalized political communities from the 19th century to the present

In the 1930s, the U-M Library’s Joseph A. Labadie Collection — the oldest publicly accessible archive of its kind in America — was called “probably the most complete record of the social unrest of our times that has ever been assembled.“

Since then, the collection has only grown, expanding from its original focus on anarchism to also encompass antheism and free thought, anti-colonialist movements, anti-war and pacifist movements, civil liberties and civil rights, labor and workers’ rights, LGBTQ movements, prisons and prisoners, New Left, Spanish Civil War, youth and student protest, and many more.

Join us for the annual A2Geeks meeting! It’s open to everyone and free. Board members will review the year’s activities. It’s a chance for you to meet with fellow geeks, continue conversations, or share ideas.

Join the Ann Arbor Geeks as we go on a tour of the Art Lab at the fabulous Ann Arbor Art Center! The space is specially designed to align fine arts with technology and is holding some really cool classes…and we get a private tour! There may also be opportunities for us to make some things while we are there (claymation, stop-motion animations). Whatever we do, you know it will be GEEKtastic!

If you had five minutes on stage what would you say? What if you only got 20 slides and they rotated automatically after 15 seconds? Around the world geeks have been putting together Ignite nights to show their answers. We consider geekery to equal passion, so we’re looking for food geeks, tech geeks, business geeks, music geeks, art geeks, history geeks, etc to come and share their stories.

While the CivCity Initiative was applying for its nonprofit status, A2Geeks provided fiscal sponsorship to support donations to the growing organization.

We are proud to share the news that in June, CivCity received its nonprofit status and can now act independently to grow its services, achieve its mission, and incorporate supporting financial donations.

Congratulations!

Executive Director Mary Morgan’s vision for CivCity is that every single day you’ll encounter several touchpoints as you move through your daily routines – touchpoints that remind you of local issues and civic events, that help you learn about your local government, and that motivate you to do something yourself.

In her report to A2Geeks, Mary pointed out the role of our organization in the Initiative’s early successes:

A2Geeks played an instrumental role in our ability to quickly move ahead with our work, and has been a huge asset in these formative months.

The Initiative is already engaged in the community in a variety of ways, including partnering with the Ann Arbor District Library to coordinate a series of badges for their summer game.

For this year’s summer game, AADL is putting up LEGO displays all across town and they’re looking for your help!

What: Awesome and LARGE LEGO structures. Robot themed is a bonus, but not required. We’ll put a bunch of robots on whatever ends up there either way.

Why: Be a part of the AADL Summer Game! Promote LEGOs. Have the 4000+ online players SEE your work and appreciate LEGO more! You will also earn points that allow you to buy prizes! http://play.aadl.org/

Where: We’re gonna be filling display cases at the Downtown Library and the Library Branches all summer so there’s no such thing as TOO much LEGO! Specifically, they’re looking to fill the 826MI/Liberty Robot Supply Store Window on Liberty btwn Main/4th http://www.826michigan.org/

How Long: NOW until August 31

What’s in it for me? We’ll have a BIG sign in the window and give name credit to the creators, your organization etc.

The seventh annual Ann Arbor Mini Maker Faire will be held on Saturday, June 6 from 10-4 pm at the Morris Lawrence Building of the Washtenaw Community College. The faire features dozens of makers from across the region and draw thousands of members of the community for the day’s free events.

As you probably know, the awesome Ann Arbor Film Festival is coming up shortly! We are pleased to be a Community Partner with the film fest this year!

The A2geeks will be co-hosting the movie Parallel I-IV: New films and videos including one of Harun Farocki’s last works Parallel I-IV (2012-2014). “Tracing the evolution of video game graphics from the two-dimensional schematics of the early 1980s to the photorealistic environments of today, Farocki foregoes the obsession with novelty that too often characterizes discussions of so-called “new” media, instead situating games within a longer history of representation.” (see more: http://aafilmfest.org/53/events/films_in_competition_5_ages_6/)

tl;dr It’s about video game graphics from the 80s until now. VIDEO GAMES!!

By now, you have all read my book*, Images of America: Downtown Ann Arbor (available at www.teacherpatti.com or fine retailers in a2), and you are DYING to know more! Come on out to the A2 News archives on Green Road:…

If you’re looking for a unique opportunity to give back to the community, consider the A2 DataDive, happening right around the corner. It takes place this weekend, November 15 and 16, from 9am - 5pm (registration at 8:30am) in North Quad (105 S State St, Ann Arbor, MI) at the University of Michigan.

A2 DataDive brings together local non-profits and community members in the Ann Arbor and Greater Detroit area to collaborate and work on data in context. The goal of the weekend is to give non-profits a better understanding of their data and what they can do with it, while giving people hands-on experience with data, discussion about data problems, and time to learn from one another. We aim to build a strong, interdisciplinary community of practitioners who can share knowledge, skills, resources and data to support our broader community needs.

This year, the Data Dive has some great clients. We’ll be working with data from:

A2 DataDive is open to anyone who is interested, regardless of background or skillset. The DataDive is not just about data analysis and data visualization, but about helping clients understand how they can use their data to support their organization’s goals.We need people who understand:

how data should be stored

how information should be organized

how best to survey a diverse range of individuals

how best to anonymize data, and much more.

You volunteer your time and brain power, and we will provide you with the opportunity to meet new people, learn new skills, and give back to the community. (Also, food!) We have a variety of possibilities for projects for people with a wide range of skill sets.

Ignite Ann Arbor 9 is this Friday, at 7pm, Blau Auditorium, Ross School of Business. Ignite is a free event where the speakers get 5 minutes and 20 slides to talk about something they care deeply about.

Five presenters this month take the stage for ten minutes each, five minutes to demo and five minutes to answer questions, followed by open announcements and community networking. E-mail organizers at a2newtech.org if you’d like to present!

She is … heavily involved in maker culture in Ann Arbor, where she coordinates and provides marketing assistance for that community as a board member of A2Geeks, a local non-profit maker-focused organization dedicated to “opening the tech culture to everyone.”